Willis says Jones made 'significant errors' over travel budget blowout

By Jo Moir of RNZ

The Finance Minister has criticised Shane Jones for a $30,000 budget blowout incurred while attending a mining conference in Canada, saying he has made “significant errors”.

But Jones has immediately fired back, telling RNZ that Nicola Willis “must be in possession of information I don’t have, because to the best of my knowledge there were no errors made by my office”.

And New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is defending his deputy’s travel expenses including a private limousine on standby and an upgrade to business class flights, saying it’s “nothing out of the ordinary”.

Shane Jones travelled to Canada in March last year to attend the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention, said to be the world’s largest mining conference.

The original trip was budgeted and approved by Cabinet to cost $33,000 but ended up blowing out to $63,000.

Nicola Willis told RNZ on Thursday afternoon that she took spending limits set out by Cabinet for international travel “extremely seriously, as does my office”.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis criticised Shane Jones for a $30,000 budget blowout at a Canadian mining conference. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“Having reviewed how we’ve come in against budget on all of my international travel, we’ve consistently spent less than we sought from Cabinet, and that I think is good practice, that you should never exceed what Cabinet grants you in terms of your travel budget, and I think this reflects significant errors on the part of the minister and his office.”

Asked if New Zealand First was out of touch with New Zealanders who are doing it tough, Willis told RNZ that was a matter for that party but she had a track record of sticking to budgets, and others should do the same.

Willis said all ministers “including Mr Jones” should take budgets set by Cabinet “very seriously”.

Asked whether Willis was interfering, Jones told RNZ: “Look, I’ve been down this track before.

“I will compose myself and keep political firepower to the six weeks before the election – but I’ve got a message for my coalition partners – provoke the matua at your peril.”

Speaking to media on his way into a select committee scrutiny hearing as Regional Development Minister, Jones said his officials were responsible for his travel costs and sign-off was overseen by the finance department – “well above my pay grade”.

It’s reported Jones had a private limo on standby for a total of 24 hours over three days at a cost of C$3791.15 ($4641), while the original budget for land transport was set down and approved at $500.

Jones defended the expenses, blaming officials and booking errors for the overspend. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Asked why he needed the limo, Jones said: “I presume that’s when I was in chilly cold snow blizzard-riddled Toronto.”

He said whether he should have taken a taxi was a matter for officials who he “presumed” booked his trip.

When asked if he requested the limo, Jones said, “look, all those details – I’m up in the wheelhouse – all those details would have been attended to by the trip organiser”.

As to why he flew business class when premium economy was approved for the trip, Jones blamed a booking error.

“To the best of my knowledge there was some sort of cock-up with the original booking, and then it was corrected, and by the time they corrected it there must have been a change in the cost structure of the trip.”

“I tend not to book my own travel,” Jones said.

“I mean, these things are detached from the politicians, so that there’s accountability, and the system runs the budgetary travel, and then it’s signed off, I think, by the Prime Minister’s department or something like that.”

Peters was also stopped by reporters at Parliament on Thursday morning where he insisted Jones had done nothing wrong.

“There’s nothing out of the ordinary on this matter at all, and by any other comparison with other ministers

“They made a budgetary mistake at the start as to what it costs were when I saw that, actually I couldn’t believe that they were so low, so what you’ve got is normalcy in this case, and there’s nothing for us to apologise here for,” Peters said.

“You can say there might be a budget, but when you get there, you have to deal with the realities.”

On the upgrade from premium economy to business class, Peters said that was within the rules when it’s 20 hours of flying.

“I’ve flown personally halfway around the world on economy and nobody’s ever reflected on that, have you? But in this case what he did was normal.”

Ministerial Services began chasing an explanation about an initial $20,000 overspend in May last year, and had to send several follow-up emails.

In January Jones wrote to the prime minister’s chief of staff seeking retrospective approval, which was approved the following month.

Responding to the delay between Jones being asked for an explanation and the approval being sought, Peters said those sorts of issues often take a lot of time “and it’s not the minister’s fault”.

This will be the system’s delay – that’s why things take that long," he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has also piled in on Jones, telling reporters he was not “walking the talk” and living up to the Government’s rhetoric around fiscal restraint.

“They’re telling everybody else to tighten their belts and make do with less [while] Shane Jones is living it up large around the world.”

-RNZ